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classroomsliterary heroesliterary topographyliterary woeslitigationliving in the momentload factorlobsterslocal colorlogogryphslonelinesslong weekendslongitudarianismloungeslove songslovely coupleslumpers vs. splittersluriditylyricismmachinerymade-up wordsmagazine editingmagpiesmake way for ducklingsmammalsmannersmaple sugarmartial artsmasculinitymaterialsmatinee idolsmating ritualsmechanical failuremeerkatsmelancholymelodramameltdownmembranesmenmentalismmentalitiesmeridiansmessmetalmetermeteringmicrogenresmidlifemilkminingmirrorsmiscellaniesmise-en-scenemisquotingmodelingmodestymolassesmolecular gastronomymolesmonkeysmonstrous birthsmorphologymorris dancingmotherhoodmotor neuron disordersmotorcyclesmovementmoving picturesmultiple birthsmummificationmunchmurky thingsmushroomsmutinynamby-pambynanotechnologynaomi noviknarrationnational identitynear missesneedlesneoclassicismneoconservatismnervesnewsnewslettersno sweatnon sequiturnon-edifying thingsnorthern lightsnoshnouveau romannuclear reactorsnuclear warnudismobamaobscenitiesobservationoccupationsonline communitiesonomatopoieaoptimismoral hygieneorationordering principlesorgan donationorganizationorgansorgiesorienteeringorificesorthographyouroborosouter spaceouterwearoverrated thingsoverschedulingoysterspaleontologypancakespanopticonspapparanoiaparanormal activityparasitesparasolsparataxisparenthesisparliamentary debatepartspast livesperambulationpercussionperfectibilitypersonal trainingpersonality disordersphantom limbspharmaciespheromonesphilosophical historyphobiaspicturespilferingpinkpinspixillationplace namesplagiarismploiteringpoetic dictionpolicepolydactylypolygamyponderingpondingpopular eschatologyportalsportmanteau wordspossessivenesspostcardspotboilerspoundagepoutspowerliftingprefixespregnancyprejudicepreparednesspresencepresent-tense thinkingprincesseryprocessprodigal sonsprofessional developmentprojectspronunciationpropagandaprophylaxisproposalspropsprosodyprosopagnosiaprostitutionpsychiatrypsychoanalysispsychohistorypsychopathologypsychotic geographypublic displays of emotionpublic housingpublic service announcementspublicationpuckspulp fictionpursuitspusquarantinequeer thingsrabbitradioactive hashradioactivityragtimerandom exploitsrationingreadingsrecidivismrecognitionreconstituted foodrecord-keepingrecreational geologyrecreational oologyrecreational ornithologyrecumbencyred sciencereference worksrefrigerator magnetsregenerationreinventionrelaxationreligious observancerenewalrenovationreplacementsreplicasreptilesrepurposingrequirementsresidential archeologiesrespectabilityrespectable garbretirementretributional geologyreversalsreverse engineeringrevolutionrhymerhythmriskritualrobitsrock-climbingrole modelsromans fleuveroutinerubber goodsrude wordssabbatarianismsafarisaliencescavenger huntsscenariosscenesschizophreniascience writingscrapesscriptwritingseaside resortssecretssectarianismseedsself-controlself-employmentself-evaluationself-loveself-regulationsemaphoresentencesserial killersshadow playshameshape-shifterssharkssharp practicesshibbolethsshootingshuttlessiegessightseeingsign languagesignallingsignssimulationsituationssizeslaverysleep schedulessleepwearsloganeeringsmall press publishingsmartphonessmellsnailssnoozingsocial justicesocial networkingsocial sciencesocial worksociobiologysolsticesong-writingsongs of youthsonnetssordid propensitiessoundscapesspa treatmentsspankingspectaclespectatorshipspeculationspinachspiralsspittingspots and dotsspunksquidsquirrelsstacking protocolsstalkingstarchstart-upsstating the obvioussteampunkstenographystepparentsstickinessstigmastomach painstreaksstreamingstridulationstructural integritystructurestrugglesstudy abroadsubway readingsuffixessummariessunbathingsuperpowerssupply chain managementsurface tensionsurgerysurveyssushiswimming the Hellespontsyllabus designsymbolismsynecdochesynonymssyruptabletstacttailstales of the uncannytapestriestattoestattoostearstechnologies of writingtelepathytemerairetemperamenttemperature extremesterrinetesselationtestimonytextilestextual analysistextual criticismthalassotropismthe 100-meter breaststrokethe 1970sthe 1980sthe Dewar bulbthe Duchess of Devonshirethe Fibonacci sequencethe French Revolutionthe Grand Tourthe Hanseatic Leaguethe PhDthe Pope controversythe art of sinkingthe beat generationthe callthe chapterthe cold warthe eighteeth centurythe evangelicalthe intellectual murmurthe irrationalthe legal systemthe life of Rileythe marriage plotthe material worldthe modern worldthe moonthe naked and the nudethe neutralthe peaceable kingdomthe rat racethe sense of directionthe serial commathe twentieth centurythe virtualtheoriesthieverythimblesthing-makingthings I must really do before I diethings that don't workthings that helpthings that will make my mother laughthings that workthixotropismthrifttie-instobaccotombstonestouchtouringtracestrademarkstraffictransferencetrapdoorstreadmillstreestrepanningtriathlon littriathlon memoirtrichotillomaniatriffidstrilobitestrilogiestrollstrouser-wearingtsunamistuataratulipmaniatuningturtlestwiddling the knobstyping speedultravioletuncontrollable urgesunderwater colonizationundulationunemploymentungulatesunwanted thingsurban archeologyurgencyurine managementvaccinationvalue for moneyvarietiesvariorum editionsvarious contrivancesvenereal diseaseverb useverisimilitudevillage lifevillanellesvirtuevorticesvowelswallabieswalnutswanderingwar criminalswaste managementwatcheswe have been here beforewealthwear and tearweekend equivalentswhimsywhisperingwhistleblowingwhite waleswholesomenesswirelesswombatsword choiceword countsword processingwordplayworks of scholarship which no home should be withoutworkspacesworld warswormswrapping paperwriter's blockwriting by handx-rayszinczipperszorbingLight reading"Too much traffic"http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)Blogger4839125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-2025454932620524921Thu, 26 Mar 2015 00:40:00 +00002015-03-25T20:40:35.275-04:00bedscultural criticismdouble entendreseventsinterviewsRaymond Williamsself-promotionIn bed with Raymond WilliamsI was on the verge of writing B. an email earlier - "Getting into bed with Raymond Williams" - only I realized that what I really needed was a straight-up nap, not nap-pretending-to-be-reading-a-book! I have been remiss in not mentioning this here sooner - Facebook and Twitter leach energy away from this sort of announcement - but I've got a fun gig tomorrow night, joining Geoff Dyer (one of my literary heroes) and Nikil Saval (Columbia grad and author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cubed-History-Workplace-Nikil-Saval/dp/0345802802/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427330211&sr=8-1&keywords=cubed" target="_blank">Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace</a>, which I haven't read yet but which I sent a copy of last year to my father, longtime "cube" occupant) for a panel discussion of a new reissue of <a href="http://www.versobooks.com/events/1052-geoff-dyer-nikil-saval-and-jenny-davidson-raymond-williams-politics-and-letters" target"_blank">Politics and Letters: Interviews with New Left Review</a>. <br /><br />At the Strand Bookstore, Thursday, March 26, 7pm (828 Broadway @ 12th St.).<br /><br />http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/03/in-bed-with-raymond-williams.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-109747918060823429Wed, 25 Mar 2015 00:37:00 +00002015-03-24T20:37:12.598-04:00catsdataroamingtracking devicesFellow travelers<a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2015/03/22/petscolumn/OtuIDfLWdrxGCslLOU3xMP/story.html" target="_blank">The Cat Tracker Project</a>.http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/03/fellow-travelers.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-3046675726491773564Wed, 25 Mar 2015 00:34:00 +00002015-03-24T20:34:44.306-04:00clothingDiana AthillfashionluxuryWomen and clothes<a href="http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/lifestyle/diana-athill/stuff-dreams?page=full" target="_blank">Diana Athill on luxury</a>.http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/03/women-and-clothes.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-9043976716301553170Mon, 23 Mar 2015 13:13:00 +00002015-03-23T09:13:39.142-04:00catsinternational travelletter-writingNew York livingNew York livingOne of the services the professional catsitters provide is a very funny note to greet you on your arrival home (NYC often outdoes even your most extravagant imaginings!)....<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6ERpqyQYr7g/VRARMjn5SSI/AAAAAAAACDc/Xoua6BDJl8M/s1600/cat%2Bnote%2B1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6ERpqyQYr7g/VRARMjn5SSI/AAAAAAAACDc/Xoua6BDJl8M/s400/cat%2Bnote%2B1.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QPVQ6TBqpjo/VRARTz1T5CI/AAAAAAAACDk/6TvogaNSLc4/s1600/cat%2Bnote%2B2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QPVQ6TBqpjo/VRARTz1T5CI/AAAAAAAACDk/6TvogaNSLc4/s400/cat%2Bnote%2B2.JPG" /></a></div>http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/03/new-york-living.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-757169681610783385Fri, 20 Mar 2015 13:45:00 +00002015-03-20T09:47:33.157-04:00Antonia Fraserchildhood readinghistory-writinglossmemoirOur Island StoryRudyard KiplingThe last...At the end of January my father and I were both keen to read Antonia Fraser's memoir of childhood, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/My-History-Fraser/dp/0297871900/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426857553&sr=1-1&keywords=my+history" target="_blank" target="_blank">My History</a>; it's not properly published in the US, i.e. unavailable for Kindle, so he kindly ordered us each a copy from the Book Depository in the UK. Thus leading to my painful awareness, as I read the book this week with considerable pleasure, that this is the last book my father will ever send me....<br /><br />A passage that I know would have caught his eye, as Enid Blyton was also famously banned by the librarian in the Kirkcaldy of my father's childhood: <blockquote>One author was never allowed to pollute our imaginations and that was Enid Blyton. In an excess of Thirties moralistic disapproval - the only example of such that I can remember - my mother banned her works. Unusually for me, I took no steps to get hold of the books in question later from the library. Indeed, I followed my mother when dealing with my own family, more for reasons of intellectual snobbery, I suspect, rather than anything else. My daughters, however, showed more spirit: it was not long before a stockpile of the dread works came tumbling out of their wardrobe. 'Jane' - a lively schoolfriend - 'gave them to us' was the explanation. 'She felt sorry for us not being able to read them. It was so exciting reading them in secret.' (A lesson, surely, in the dangers of censorship.)</blockquote>To a curious degree, I share some of Fraser's influences in the matter of childhood reading: I suppose these were my English grandmother's books rather than even my mother's (<i>Our Island Story</i> and the unforgettably good <i>Puck of Pook's Hill</i> and <i>Rewards and Fairies</i>). When it came to <a href="http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/marshall/england/england.html" target="_blank">Our Island Story</a>, I was particularly fascinated by the story of <a href="http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/marshall/england/england-9.html" target="_blank">the coming of Hengist and Horsa</a>, which Fraser doesn't single out here but which I cannot resist quoting: <blockquote>Then Hengist said, "You have indeed given us lands and houses, but as we have helped you so much I think you should give me a castle and make me a prince."<br /><br />"I cannot do that," replied Vortigern. "Only Britons are allowed to be princes in this land. You are strangers and you are heathen. My people would be very angry if I made any one but a Christian a prince."<br /><br />At that Hengist made a low bow, pretending to be very humble. "Give your servant then just so much land as can be surrounded by a leather thong," he said.<br /><br />Vortigern thought there could be no harm in doing that, so he said, "Yes, you may have so much." But he did not know what a cunning fellow Hengist was.<br /><br />As soon as Vortigern had given his consent, Hengist and Horsa killed the largest bullock they could find. Then they took its skin and cut it round and round into one long narrow strip of leather. This they stretched out and laid upon the ground in a large circle, enclosing a piece of land big enough upon which to build a fortress.<br /><br />If you do not quite understand how Hengist and Horsa managed to cut the skin of a bullock into one long strip, get a piece of paper and a pair of scissors. Begin at the edge and cut the paper round and round in circles till you come to the middle. You will then find that you have a string of paper quite long enough to surround a brick castle. If you are not allowed to use scissors, ask some kind person to do it for you.<br /><br />Vortigern was very angry when he learned how he had been cheated by Hengist and Horsa. But he was beginning to be rather afraid of them, so he said nothing, but allowed them to build their fortress. It was called Thong Castle, and stood not far from Lincoln, at a place now called Caistor.</blockquote>It's a very interesting memoir, but shallow rather than deep: you only get glimpses into more complicated ideas and states of feeling (I liked the aside where Fraser notes of her father that his trait of marking a book with a strong pencil as he read was so characteristic and ingrained that "after his death, I was able to identify a copy of the New Testament left behind in the House of Lords library, without an owner's name, but full of those ritual stabbings"). And here are a few of the passages that most resonated with me: <blockquote>It is a fact that, being a quick reader, apart from enabling a person to study good books such as Macaulay and Gibbon, enables a person to read a lot of bad books as well. It would however be ungrateful to pick out the titles that gave me such pleasure and stigmatize them as bad books; besides, I would maintain that such books can teach you narrative skill, which certainly never comes amiss in writing History.</blockquote>And again: <blockquote>It was now for the first time that the pleasure of what for tax purposes I came to term (perfectly accurately) Optical Research was revealed to me. It also could be called Going to Places and Looking at Them. But what an essential process it is in the making of a historical biography! With the respectful handling of the original documents, it ranks as one of the major ways of reaching what G. M. Trevelyan in his <i>Autobiography</i> called 'the poetry of history': 'the quasi-miraculous fact that once, on this earth, once, on this familiar spot of ground, walked other men and women, as actual as we are today, thinking their own thoughts, swayed by their own passions, but now all gone, one generation vanishing after another . . .'</blockquote>(Note to self: <i>you must write that little book about Gibbon's Rome</i>!) <br /><br />Other appealing details concern <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=20gEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA77&lpg=PA77&dq=fish+furniture+admiralty+house+dolphins&source=bl&ots=676kxLA7FI&sig=WEg_cejBlBuIU67epHEPabhIbLc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xiIMVdSmFMWxggSjv4CQDQ&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=fish%20furniture%20admiralty%20house%20dolphins&f=false" target="_blank">the "Fish Furniture" at Admiralty House</a> and Cecil Beaton's pedantic habit of preferring the plural "gins-and-tonic": a life of privilege needless to say, which has irked some readers I think, but I couldn't put it down.http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-last.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-2868540096534680987Fri, 20 Mar 2015 03:34:00 +00002015-03-19T23:34:29.278-04:00Dorothea LaskymagicpoetryteachingSwagger<a href="http://www.teachersandwritersmagazine.org/on-swagger-wildness-the-color-red-993.htm" target="_blank">A lovely interview with Dorothea Lasky at P&W</a> (via Robert Polito): <blockquote>I use that word “performance” a lot when discussing teaching, and I really believe that what the teacher is doing is a performance. You are saying that this set of behaviors has some meaning. That’s what you’re doing is a spell as well, and that’s definitely what you’re doing in a poem. A poem asserts: I’ve made this line, and this is going to have some effect on you. Just the act of believing does make it have an effect. For example, in a class, if I am going to get ten oranges and ask students to write a poem, just the fact that a teacher has decreed that as important—it does become important. You have a classroom of students who have not only thought deeply about oranges, you also have a classroom’s worth of poems about oranges. Or if we say that we’re going to read John Donne, then that becomes really important. A whole group of people will see his work in a new way—it wouldn’t have happened otherwise, if the people had simply read him on their own. It may seem arbitrary and specific to the particular teacher, and it is, in a holy way. Every teacher brings their style into the classroom in ways that both crucial and critical and this why we still need real-life teachers, not machines, to teach our students.</blockquote>http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/03/swagger.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-4699510197865423391Fri, 20 Mar 2015 03:31:00 +00002015-03-19T23:31:21.965-04:00Gore Vidalmemoirstrong drinkSympathy for the devil<a href="http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1532395.ece" target"_blank">Gore Vidal's morning-after revisionism</a>.http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/03/sympathy-for-devil.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-5470067213530867613Thu, 19 Mar 2015 13:10:00 +00002015-03-19T09:10:42.134-04:00light readingLogging catch-upHave had a good miscellany of light reading, but it's been too long since I logged it: better do some catch-up, with recommendations.<br /><br />Lavie Tidhar, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Violent-Century-Novel-Lavie-Tidhar/dp/125006449X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426769736&sr=8-1&keywords=violent+century" target="_blank">The Violent Century</a>: I had been awaiting this one avidly, and it more than lived up to expectations. I loved this book! It's even better than Ian Tregillis's Milkweed books. And also rather better than another not-bad Zeitgeist twin I read the same week, Justin Richards's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Suicide-Exhibition-Novel-Never-War/dp/1250059208/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426769874&sr=8-1&keywords=suicide+exhibition" target="_blank">The Suicide Exhibition</a>.<br /><br />A book that could have been written for me and me alone: Jo Walton, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Just-City-Jo-Walton/dp/0765332663/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426769973&sr=8-1&keywords=the+just+city" target="_blank">The Just City</a>. Read this if you grew up on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Last-Wine-Mary-Renault/dp/0375726810/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426770000&sr=8-1&keywords=the+last+of+the+wine" target="_blank">The Last of the Wine</a> and/or ever wished you could live in Plato's Republic!<br /><br />A wonderful novel that rightly bears comparison to <i>The Fountain Overflows</i> and <i>I Capture the Castle</i>: Nina Stibbe, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Man-at-Helm-Nina-Stibbe-ebook/dp/B00LLIJ0WE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426770375&sr=1-1&keywords=man+at+the+helm" target="_blank">Man at the Helm</a>.<br /><br />A new installment in a brilliant series (everyone who likes crime fiction should be reading these): Adrian McKinty, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Gun-Street-Girl-Detective-Duffy/dp/1633880001/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426770108&sr=8-1&keywords=gun+street+girl" target="_blank">Gun Street Girl</a>.<br /><br />A book that is pretty much exactly what I most enjoy in fantasy: Katherine Addison's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Goblin-Emperor-Katherine-Addison/dp/0765365685/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426769700&sr=8-1&keywords=the+goblin+emperor" target="_blank">The Goblin Emperor</a>. Hungry for next installment NOW!<br /><br />A perfect light-reading novella: Zen Cho, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Perilous-Life-Jade-Yeo-ebook/dp/B0087NQRM2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426770177&sr=8-1&keywords=perilous+life+of+jade+yeo" target="_blank">The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo</a> (and I'm also halfway through her excellent story collection <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Spirits-Abroad-ebook-Zen-Cho-ebook/dp/B00O67K1I4/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" target="_blank">Spirits Abroad</a>). Someone must get me an ARC of her forthcoming novel <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sorcerer-Crown-Royal-Novel-ebook/dp/B00SI0B91S/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426770268&sr=1-1&keywords=sorcerer+to+the+crown" target="_blank">Sorceror to the Crown</a>!<br /><br />A novel of Cayman, Elke Feuer's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Bloodlines-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00IPNN1DW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426770038&sr=8-1&keywords=elke+feuer" target="_blank">Deadly Bloodlines</a> (well-written once you swallow the demographic implausibility of a Caymanian police detective whose mother is a notorious serial killer!).<br /><br />An also implausible but reasonably well-written thriller/police procedural (it couldn't decide which element was more dominant): Rachel Abbott, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Only-Innocent-Rachel-Abbott-ebook/dp/B0091TMAK4/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426770425&sr=1-1&keywords=only+the+innocent" target="_blank">Only the Innocent</a>.<br /><br />Ian Tregillis's latest, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mechanical-Alchemy-Wars-Ian-Tregillis-ebook/dp/B00IRIR85M/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426770304&sr=1-1&keywords=the+mechanical" target="_blank">The Mechanical</a> (too much of the imaginative energy has gone into the concept and not enough into characters and voice).<br /><br />Comfort read: Patricia Briggs, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Alpha-Omega-Patricia-Briggs/dp/0425256758/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426769841&sr=8-1&keywords=dead+heat" target="_blank">Dead Heat</a>.<br /><br />Comfort reread: Robin McKinley, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Robin-Mckinley/dp/0147512204/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426769662&sr=8-1&keywords=shadows+mckinley" target="_blank">Shadows</a>.<br /><br />Also, appealingly, my friend "Lilia Ford"'s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Pet-Tentacle-Monsters-Lilia-Ford-ebook/dp/B00LNVEKCY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426769628&sr=8-1&keywords=pet+to+the+tentacle+monsters" target="_blank">Pet to the Tentacle Monsters!</a>http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/03/logging-catch-up.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-5931089234150333517Wed, 18 Mar 2015 12:54:00 +00002015-03-18T08:54:00.219-04:00bionicsnanotechnologyprintersunderwearBionic wearables<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bodysphere/from-bionic-bras-to-printed-stem-cells/6325180" target="_blank">The bionic bra</a> (via <a href="http://blog.geekpress.com/2015/03/bionic-bra.html" target="_blank">GeekPress</a>): <blockquote>'The easiest way to explain it is if you're sitting down, the bra is relaxed and comfortable, and it's not constraining you,’ she says. 'If you were suddenly to get up and run for a bus and your breasts are bouncing, the bra will sense that and tighten up to give you the support that you need.<br /><br />‘Then when you're on the bus it realises you don't need that support anymore and just relaxes. So it's responding to women's physical needs.’<br /><br />The bionic bar [sic] would improve on current sports bras, which offer a lot of support but tend to be tight and uncomfortable.</blockquote>http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/03/bionic-wearables.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-5989836445398125336Tue, 17 Mar 2015 22:59:00 +00002015-03-17T18:59:17.472-04:00Charles StrossconventionsLavie TidharobituariesTerry Pratchettthe writing lifeTwo bits<a href="http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2015/03/terry-pratchett.html" target="_blank">Charlie Stross</a> and <a href="https://lavietidhar.wordpress.com/2015/03/13/terry-pratchett/" target="_blank">Lavie Tidhar</a> on the late great Terry Pratchett.<br /><br />(My favorite books of his are the Death books in the Discworld sequence and the Tiffany Aching books, but really you can't go wrong.)http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/03/two-bits.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-1412966312182051068Tue, 17 Mar 2015 22:55:00 +00002015-03-17T18:55:21.505-04:00birdscathedral lifecatspresentsrock-climbingBirds bearing gifts<a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31795681" target="_blank">Shiny things</a>! (Via B.)<br /><br />Also:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mnn.com/family/pets/stories/shelter-cat-makes-perfect-rock-climbing-partner" target="_blank">Rock-climbing cats</a> (via Jane); <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/mar/16/cathedral-cat-under-suspicion-following-dog-attacks-in-wells" target="_blank">unwarranted pouncing</a> (ditto).http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/03/birds-bearing-gifts.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-3162968327424273718Tue, 17 Mar 2015 22:51:00 +00002015-03-17T18:51:30.768-04:00cat cafesLondonowlssweetsteaTwo teas in London<a href="http://www.the-berkeley.co.uk/fashion-afternoon-tea/" target"_blank">This</a>, <a href="http://www.awesomelycute.com/2015/02/london-opens-a-bar-where-you-can-pet-owls/" target="_blank">this</a>.http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/03/two-teas-in-london.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-5808959616945681210Tue, 17 Mar 2015 22:48:00 +00002015-03-17T18:48:44.696-04:00MadonnamusicNico Muhlyparticular detailreviewsMadonna Songs<a href="http://thetalkhouse.com/music/talks/nico-muhly-talks-madonnas-rebel-heart/" target="_blank">Nico on Madonna</a>: <blockquote>I am similarly frustrated and yet moved by Madonna’s resistance to giving us any real personal details. Many of the songs here are generically, rather than specifically, intimate. I am actually quite interested to know the ugly practicalities of Madonna’s life: where is her actual dwelling-place? What happens in the morning, before the many punishing hours of Ashtanga yoga? She has four kids: what’s that like? When she says, “Each time they take the photograph/I lose a part I can’t get back,” doesn’t it feel like it’s missing one crucial or personal detail? When Kanye says, manically, “I’ll move my family out the country so you can’t see where I stay,” we can picture the move; we see the family packing clothes — Spanx and faux-fur shrugs folded into convenient shapes — and thinking about nannies and schools. When Michael and Janet made “Scream,” didn’t you find yourself envisaging the horrors of Michael, alone in that huge house, amidst all those allegations, the giraffes quietly and deferentially nibbling on acacia outside their master’s window? And perhaps more relevantly, the heart-shattering detail Joni Mitchell gives us when she says, “The bed’s too big/The frying pan’s too wide” — we picture that precise old frying pan, its greasy patina informed by various fried Canadian delicacies, and shimmering with remembered arguments and intimacies with her lover?</blockquote>http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/03/madonna-songs.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-6846949022061716206Tue, 17 Mar 2015 22:16:00 +00002015-03-17T18:16:51.456-04:00April Bernardhistorical fictionillustrationLaura Ingalls Wilderthe nineteenth centuryLittle house<a href="http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2015/mar/17/laura-ingalls-wilder-pioneer-girl/" target="_blank">At the NYRB blog, April Bernard on Laura Ingalls Wilder</a>.http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/03/little-house.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-5794503698670960182Wed, 11 Mar 2015 20:42:00 +00002015-03-11T16:42:22.202-04:00expatsGuy BurgessMoscowshoppingsleepwearthe cold war"No stripes please"<a href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2015/03/11/inigo-thomas/no-stripes-please/" target="_blank">At the LRB blog, Inigo Thomas considers the sartorial flair or lack thereof of Guy Burgess</a>: <blockquote>From Moscow, he carried on paying his annual membership fee to the Reform. He banked at Lloyds on St James’s. His clothes came from tailors on Jermyn and Bond Streets. The actress Coral Browne, who met him in Moscow, bought clothes on his behalf and sent them on. Their correspondence was the inspiration for Alan Bennett’s play <i>An Englishman Abroad</i>.<br /><br />‘Thanks for your kindness in shopping for me and visiting my mum,’ Burgess wrote in an undated letter. ‘I really begin to think that English women, like Russian ones, are better characters than men.’ He tells Browne he is impressed not only with her shopping but with her thoroughness: she knows how to ‘dot the ‘i’s in “miaow”’. Having had suits made for him and ordered Homburg hats with their rims turned up from Locke’s, Burgess has a last favour to ask: pyjamas. <blockquote>What I really need, the only thing more, is pyjamas. Russians ones can’t be slept in – are not in fact made for that purpose. What I would like if you can find them is 4 pairs (2 of each) of white (or off white, not grey) and Navy Blue Silk or Nylon or Terrylene [sic] – but heavy, not crêpe de chine or whatever is light pyjama. Quite plain and only those two colours… Don’t worry about price… Gieves of Bond Street used always to keep plain Navy blue silk. Navy and white are my only colours, and no stripes please.</blockquote></blockquote>(Reminds me rather of <a href="http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2013/04/madrid-pink-prague-green-waddesdon-navy.html">this</a>....)http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/03/no-stripes-please.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-7505313618526044098Tue, 10 Mar 2015 01:28:00 +00002015-03-09T21:28:29.033-04:00bloggingbyrondocumentary artfund-raisingordering principlesswimmingSwimming with ByronI remember when I first started blogging that I found it slightly painful, the way that a really good post would immediately be superseded by the next one above it - it is definitely an ordering principle that takes a bit of getting used to. In this case, though, I am happy to bump my dreadful last post down the page....<br /><br />Kickstarter invitations galore come through my feeds, but this is truly one after my own heart: <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1043584733/swimming-with-byron-a-documentary-film" target="_blank">a documentary film called Swimming with Byron</a>!<br /><br />(On which note, I think my review of the excellent <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Swimming-Johnson-Mrs-Thrale-Eighteenth-century/dp/0718892763/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425950664&sr=8-1&keywords=swimming+with+dr+johnson" target="_blank">Swimming with Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Thrale</a> should be out soon in the academic journal Biography.)http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/03/swimming-with-byron.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-423313910065724852Mon, 09 Mar 2015 04:07:00 +00002015-03-09T00:07:54.413-04:00life and deathlossPhiladelphiatelephonesA quick note from PhiladelphiaThe timing is so unlikely as to be actively confusing: my brother M. and I were already talking, in the car down here this morning, about how hard it will be to explain. <br /><br />Our mother's husband Jim died two weeks ago. <br /><br />On Friday, I got very worried when my father didn't answer our usual end-of-week phone call. I emailed him in case his phone had accidentally turned itself off, but I didn't hear back from him in either medium. Wrote another email saying I'd try the next afternoon instead.<br /><br />I was so tired I went to bed at 7, slept till midnight, was up for a few hours and then slept again - made it to Chelsea Piers for my beloved 10am spin, then came home and went back to bed.<br /><br />(Have been operating in huge fatigue hole. Common for this time of the school year.)<br /><br />When I woke up in the late afternoon, I was suddenly consumed with alarm that there was still no email response. This is very unusual. And yet one must respect the autonomous habits and preferences of another human being? <br /><br />I emailed B. with some rather frenetic thoughts and worries along these lines, and decided that it would not in fact be going overboard to call the Philadelphia police and ask if they could do a "welfare check." (The front desk person in his apartment building doesn't have keys or access to apartments and the maintenance workers, who do, don't work weekends.)<br /><br />That was 6:30. I was glued to the phone for the next three hours waiting for a call back, didn't want to pester. Finally I called around 9:30 and it emerged, after some transferring hither and thither, that really nobody had ever gone to the apartment. The woman on the phone promised to send an officer immediately and suggested that I call back in half an hour.<br /><br />The officer called me back less than half an hour later. He was outside my father's apartment door, with no response. (It's not an option to break down doors in this sort of situation.) He was leaning towards going away again as there was no obvious next step.<br /><br />I said a few words about my father as a person of regular habits, with life spent between home and work. The officer <i>heard</i> me and said he would go and try to find the off-site security people to let him in.<br /><br />He called back a few minutes later with bad news. <br /><br />My father's body was lying on the floor. He had been dead for some time.<br /><br />That was about twenty-four hours ago. (Could there have been a worse night of the year to "spring forward"?)<br /><br />There is no doubt that we will get through this. But I am still rather reeling, Job-like, at the latest turn of events....<br /><br />http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/03/a-quick-note-from-philadelphia.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-7529023908576960771Sun, 08 Mar 2015 01:15:00 +00002015-03-07T20:15:55.179-05:00fantasyhistorical fictioninterviewsKazuo Ishigurolanguagestylethe pastvernacular languageOgres in passing<a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/24786502-c29e-11e4-ad89-00144feab7de.html#axzz3TkK2sKqe" target="_blank">Lorien Kite interviews Kazuo Ishiguro at the FT</a> (site registration required): <blockquote>“About 50 or 60 pages in, maybe slightly more, I thought, well, maybe I’ll show Lorna this,” says Ishiguro. “And she looked at it and said: ‘This is appalling — this won’t do.’ I said: ‘So what’s wrong with it? What should I change?’ She said: ‘You can’t change anything. You’ll just have to start again from scratch; completely from scratch.’”<br /><br />Ishiguro couldn’t face the job of reconstruction immediately, turning instead to the short-story collection that would be published as Nocturnes in 2009. But when he did return to the Dark Ages, the approach was different. “The first time I had a go at this thing it was a bit like Sir Walter Scott, over-egged with a kind of period vernacular. The second time around I just tried to keep the language as simple as possible. I worked more at taking words from what you or I would say rather than adding things like ‘prithee’ — just by removing prepositions or the odd word here and there, I ended up with something that sounded slightly odd or slightly foreign.”</blockquote>http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/03/ogres-in-passing.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-2573489512215055040Tue, 03 Mar 2015 21:00:00 +00002015-03-03T16:00:30.641-05:00campus lifecatsmidnight feaststhe school yeartravelIncidental pleasuresI am having a very lovely visit to Henrix College. Incidental pleasures: lunch yesterday <a href="http://southonmain.com/menus/lunch/" target="_blank">at the Oxford American in Little Rock</a> (I not very adventurously had a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup, rather than sampling new Southern cuisine of various kinds - it is a simple pleasure I can rarely resist when I see it - but the meal ended with one of the most delicious desserts I've ever eaten, Do-si-do Girl Scout cookies crumbled up in a jar with white chocolate ganache and a salted caramel peanut ice-cream). Pizza, salad and a margarita for dinner at <a href="http://www.zazapizzaandsalad.com/" target="_blank">Zaza</a> with my host Dorian and old friend Giffen. And a <a href="http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2014/nov/02/student-spays-neuters-feral-cats-odyssey-project/?print" target="_blank">cat colony on campus</a>!http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/03/incidental-pleasures.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-2226435442428186613Sun, 01 Mar 2015 16:14:00 +00002015-03-01T11:14:11.677-05:00literary classroomspublic speakingthe school yearLiterary classrooms<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ymuSDH6kxSQ/VPM5LgnXSbI/AAAAAAAACCE/wmcARxtUBFw/s1600/11001712_10153804911807228_2547924089961300437_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ymuSDH6kxSQ/VPM5LgnXSbI/AAAAAAAACCE/wmcARxtUBFw/s320/11001712_10153804911807228_2547924089961300437_o.jpg" /></a><br />My brief description: <blockquote>As students and teachers, we spend a lot of time in the classroom. It witnesses moments of exhilaration, boredom, discovery and hilarity, and the dynamics of conversation in the classroom occupy a good deal of our attention. But most of the great canonical novels we read are more interested in domestic scenes - husbands and wives, parents and children, siblings and friends - than in school ones. An exploration of literary classrooms - the humiliations and torment, for students and teachers, depicted by Dickens in Nicholas Nickeby and David Copperfield and by Charlotte Bronte in Villette; the small-group dynamics of Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie; the classrooms of contemporary children's literature from Harriet the Spy to J. K. Rowling. What are the risks and rewards of setting fictional scenes in classrooms? And what is the relationship between the dreams of reading and writing and dreams of teaching and learning?</blockquote><a href="https://www.hendrix.edu/events/view.aspx?id=72540" target="_blank">More information here</a>. <br /><br />My host <a href="https://eigermonchjungfrau.wordpress.com/">Dorian Stuber</a> has lined up a couple other really wonderful things for me to do while I'm on campus (and I am promised swimming-pool access too): namely, visiting a class that's reading <i>Clarissa</i> and running a student discussion on the topic of light reading by way of Ben Aaronovitch's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Riot-Peter-Grant-Book-ebook/dp/B004C43F70/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425226331&sr=8-1&keywords=midnight+riot">Midnight Riot</a>, which I now have a good excuse to reread on my flights tomorrow morning! <br /><br />(6:20am departure from JFK: just trying to figure out how early I really should leave for that....)<br /><br />(Just the thought of it makes me think that I might have to lie down right now for a short nap - napped so long yesterday afternoon that I slept very badly last night and am now feeling on the verge of collapse!)http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/03/literary-classrooms.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-1122264477548730583Sun, 22 Feb 2015 13:24:00 +00002015-02-22T08:24:32.120-05:00Anthony Burgessliterary journalismreviewingBoxes of Organized Knowledge<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/21/anthony-burgess-book-critic" target="_blank">A really lovely piece by Blake Morrison on Anthony Burgess as book reviewer</a>.http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/02/boxes-of-organized-knowledge.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-9172134714875259772Sun, 22 Feb 2015 02:22:00 +00002015-02-21T21:22:31.893-05:00art cover artFrederic TutenprocessRoy Lichtenstein"Lichtenstein does not torture the paint"<a href="http://032c.com/2015/032c-interiors-writer-frederic-tuten-gives-us-a-look-inside-his-old-friend-roy-lichtensteins-studio/" target="_blank">Frederic Tuten on Roy Lichtenstein's studio</a>: <blockquote>Others could explain more precisely about his process. It started with an outline on the canvas for what would become the painting. He would fill in the spaces with colored paper cutouts, and tape them in place to see how they would look. He’d move the cutouts around until he decided what worked. There was a template for the dots too. So even before the actual painting process began there was a collage of how it would eventually look. His was the exact opposite of the Abstract Expressionists’ aesthetic, which was supposedly the personality of the artist declared on the canvas. His personality was in paintings, but certainly not bombastically so. Roy’s work was very organized, systematic, and intelligent. Nothing left to chance. It was all deliberate, like when he made the “Brushstroke” series. These paintings are a bit of a joke about Abstract Expressionism, because the brush stroke, the rhythm, the swipe, all that was premeditated—as if to say, this is how spontaneity can be engineered.</blockquote>http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/02/lichtenstein-does-not-torture-paint.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-2930985768333695881Sun, 22 Feb 2015 02:19:00 +00002015-02-21T21:19:02.150-05:00historical fictionhistory-writingSimon Schama"Brook your ire!"/toga-speech<a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ec5583e2-b115-11e4-9331-00144feab7de.html?siteedition=intl">At the FT, Simon Schama on what historians think of historical novels</a> (site registration required): <blockquote>Those who start in the thick of it, I like best of all. The writer who made me want to be an historian was Columbia University professor Garrett Mattingly. In 1959, he published <i>The Defeat of the Spanish Armada</i>, which has the imaginative grip of a novel but is grounded on the bedrock of the archives. It begins with a name the significance of which we, as yet, have absolutely no idea; with an exactly visualised place. Through the repetition of a single word “Nobody,” we hear the tolling of a bell ringing the doom of someone or other. <blockquote>“Mr Beale had not brought the warrant until Sunday evening but by Wednesday morning, before dawn outlines its high windows, the great hall of Fotheringhay was ready. Though the Earl of Shrewsbury had returned only the day before nobody wanted any more delay. Nobody knew what messenger might be riding on the London road. Nobody knew which of the others might not weaken if they wanted another.”</blockquote>What is this? Who is this? Where are we? You want to read on, don’t you? So you do so with the intense excitement of knowing every word is true.</blockquote>http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/02/brook-your-iretoga-speech.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-8994100788650437230Sun, 22 Feb 2015 02:10:00 +00002015-02-21T21:13:35.136-05:00closing tabslife and deathlight readinglossobituariesClosing tabsLost a very dear family member on Friday to cancer (metastatic melanoma, diagnosed in the days just before Christmas): my mother's husband Jim Kilik. Will write a proper memorial for him in a few days; in the meantime we are really just mourning (I will go to Philadelphia tomorrow to be with my mother for a bit).<br /><br />I have accumulated a dreadful backlog of links and light reading: even the thought of logging it makes me want to lie down in a darkened room with a moist towel over my eyes! But it must be done before I can get my head around the many other writing-related things that need to happen round here....<br /><br /><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/02/king-david/385596/" target="_blank">Ta-Nehisi Coates on what he owed to David Carr</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/06/AR2009110603404.html" target="_blank">Edward P. Jones profiled in the Washington Post</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/189001/the-enlightenment-project" target="_blank">Todd Gitlin on the enlightenment project</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=17544" target="_blank">A brief memorial for the linguist and novelist Suzette Haden Elgin</a>, whose novel <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Native-Tongue-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00CCTXRPW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1424569231&sr=8-2&keywords=native+tongue" target"_blank">Native Tongue</a> made a huge impression on me when I read it at age thirteen or fourteen.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.demilked.com/hungarian-money-concept-paper-euro-barbara-bernat/" target="_blank">The fantastical imagining of Hungarian paper money</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/rich-and-flavorful-history-chocolate-space-180954160/?utm_source=smithsoniantopic&no-ist" target="_blank">Eating chocolate in space</a>.<br /><br />Several independent things this past week prompted me to think of the lovely Eames <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0" target="_blank">Powers of Ten</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2015/02/20/inigo-thomas/fattypuffs-and-thinifers/" target="_blank">Inigo Thomas on Fattipuffs and Thinifers</a>. NB this was a book I never actually read, though it was alluringly advertised in the back of some other Puffin children's books I must have had: I should see if I can actually get hold of it.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/gallery/2015/feb/03/drones-ak-47s-and-grenades-afghan-war-rugs" target="_blank">Art of the Afghan war rug</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/were-terracotta-warriors-based-on-actual-people-180954321/?utm_source=twitter.com&amp;no-ist" target="_blank">Were the soldiers of the terracotta army based on individual people</a>?<br /><br /><a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/08/how-to-use-your-cat-to-hack-your-neighbors-wi-fi/" target="_blank">Using your cat to hack your neighbors' wifi</a> (shades of "That Darn Cat").<br /><br />Have been very busy reading things for work, but of course there is always time for some bits of light reading around the edges. Some of it inconsequential, some of it very good indeed.<br /><br />FODDER of variable quality: Susan Hill, <i>The Soul of Discretion</i> (at first I wondered why I'd let this series drop, then I remembered the things I don't like about them!); Patricia Briggs' Sianim series; Holly Black, <i>The Darkest Part of the Forest</i>; Ned Beauman, <i>Glow</i> (impressive, agile, over-ingenious); Julie Schumacher, <i>Dear Committee Members: A Novel</i> (I have been avoiding this one as letters of recommendation are FAR TOO MUCH PART OF MY LIFE ALREADY, but really it is very good); Richard Powers, <i>The Time of Our Singing</i> (supreme comfort reread - the third-person narration doesn't work as well as I remembered, but the voice of the main narrator is incredible, and it's hard to imagine a book that feels more directly written <i>to me</i> - will perhaps now reread James Baldwin's <i>Just Above My Head</i>, which I think of as the secret twin/precursor); Emma Bull, <i>War for the Oaks</i> (another comfort reread); Paula Hawkins, <i>The Girl on the Train</i> (very depressing, but a decently good read); Simon Wood, <i>The One That Got Away</i> (just about above the bar of readability); Jim Gourley, <i>The Race Within: Passion, Courage, and Sacrifice at the Ultraman Triathlon</i> (afflicted by many of the problems that so much writing about endurance sport has - silly glorifying of what is often stupidity, annoying magazine-feature style of blow-by-blow narration, etc. but nonetheless a very good read - NB I think I do not need to do an Ultraman race, particularly not the Hawaii one, whose bike course just sounds dreadful!).<br /><br />Then a few things I'll single out for particular recommendation:<br /><br />Nina Stibbe's <i>Love, Nina: A Nanny Writes Home</i> is delightful (more <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/05/nina-stibbe-interview-love-nina" target="_blank">here</a>).<br /><br />Top pick, a book I'm already sure is one of my favorites of the year: Daniel Galera, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Drenched-Beard-Daniel-Galera-ebook/dp/B00HZ1EE5O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424570242&sr=8-1&keywords=blood+drenched+beard" target="_blank">Blood-Drenched Beard</a>. Dwight Garner's <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/20/arts/daniel-galeras-blood-drenched-beard.html" target="_blank">review</a> was electrifying to me. Could there possibly be a novel more closely tailored to my particular loves? (Professional triathlete, sea swimming, whales and penguins, a dog as a main character, face-blindness [which I do not have, just relatively poor facial recognition skills, but I do have the matching thing where every place in the world looks the same to me], a Borges-Murakami access of slight mystical overtones....) Anyway, BEST BOOK EVER! Nice additional Galera bit <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/will-daniel-galeras-blood-drenched-beard-prove-to-be-a-breakout-moment-for-brazilian-literature/article22835405/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br /><br />Ian MacLeod's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Summer-Isles-Ian-R-MacLeod-ebook/dp/B00D668I2M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424570292&sr=8-1&keywords=summer+isles" target"_blank">The Summer Isles</a>: very lovely, haunting, makes me want to reread Jo Walton's Farthing books as well.<br /><br />Richard Price's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Whites-Bloomsbury-Publishing-ebook/dp/B00MLNBJOU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424570430&sr=8-1&keywords=the+whites" target="_blank">The Whites</a>, not perhaps as good as his very best books but really a great piece of work regardless (is it just me or does that elegiac breakneck narration of the opening grow wearisome as a narrative mode? He does it so well, but I am not sure it's something I really need more of in my reading life, it seems to express an orientation towards the present and the past that I can't really endorse - something overly sacral, reverential - I like the less elegiac version of similar in gonzo noir).<br /><br />Last but not least, Atul Gawande, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Being-Mortal-Illness-Medicine-Matters-ebook/dp/B00JCW0BCY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424570337&sr=8-1&keywords=being+mortal" target="_blank">Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End</a>. Painfully gripping - a good recommendation from my friend J. B., who comments that it should be required reading for anyone who hopes to grow old.http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/02/closing-tabs.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-6196124127952788463Fri, 13 Feb 2015 00:24:00 +00002015-02-12T19:24:48.454-05:00candyconsumptiondataeconomicsholidaysValentine-specific foods<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/upshot/are-conversation-hearts-your-valentine.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&abt=0002&abg=1" target="_blank">The uneven level of consumer interest in conversation hearts</a>.http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2015/02/valentine-specific-foods.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jenny Davidson)0